PHOTO GALLERY (15)

Running The Secret Canyon

4-wheelers face a dilemma. When trails get a lot of attention, they are under the microscope for potential overuse and at risk of closure by ill-informed environmentalists. Keep the trails quiet though, and you have no voice when it is threatened with closure. So our interest was piqued when the Sierra Stompers invited us to run a place called Secret Canyon.

"Secret Canyon is rockcrawling nirvana"

Despite the name, the canyon is a relatively well known destination on public land. In fact, 82 percent of the land in Nevada is owned by the public and used for such activities as mining, ranching, and recreation. Secret Canyon is rockcrawling nirvana, climbing through a season wash with lines varying from stock to psychotic. The Sierra Stompers gave us a taste of every option while picking up trash left by rogue shooters and illegal dumping along the way. Let the secret out of the bag: 4-wheelers are part of the solution, not the problem.

14. Like the old story goes about the frog in the pot of boiling water, Secret Canyon starts easy enough and before you know it you are wedged between Volkswagen-sized boulders. It didn’t seem to faze our fearless leader, Jake Munoz.